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British stars re-enact Da Vinci's The Last Supper

By:
WENN.com
Sep 16, 2013

A host of British acting greats have come together to recreate a modern version of Leonardo Da Vinci's biblical painting The Last Supper. Robert Powell, who played Jesus Christ in 1970s mini-series Jesus of Nazareth, takes centre stage in the picture, with Colin Firth on his right and Julie Walters, the only woman in the it, at his left, taking the place of Mary Magdalene.
Other stars recreating the roles of Jesus' apostles are Sir Michael Gambon, Simon Callow, Tom Conti, Peter Eyre, Anthony Andrews, Steven Berkoff, Tim Pigott-Smith, John Alderton and Sir Antony Sher.
Photographer Alistair Morrison, who recreated the 15th Century masterpiece, says, "My first two choices were Robert Powell who had to be Jesus, recreating the famous role played in Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth, and Julie Walters, who was asked to play Mary Magdalene and they both readily agreed. Their enthusiasm and influence helped to bring together this outstanding group of actors."
Prints of the piece, dubbed Actors' Last Supper, will go on sale at the National Portrait Gallery in London, with a percentage of profits going towards new collections.

Veteran British actor Steven Berkoff has been convicted of careless driving after knocking over a woman in central London. The Rambo star was accused of overtaking a car on Oxford Street on New Year's Eve (31Dec12) and hitting pedestrian Fiona Scully.
Scully was left needing to use a walking stick for a week due to her injuries.
Berkoff was found guilty at City of London Magistrates Court on Tuesday (27Aug13) and was fined $525 (£350) for driving without due care and attention. He was also fined $75 (£50) for driving without a valid licence and ordered to pay $375 (£250) costs and a $52 (£35) victim surcharge.

Actor Steven Berkoff has launched a scathing rant at British TV bosses, accusing them of dumbing down by screening "silly" and "mindless" shows such as Downton Abbey. The Octopussy star singles out the BBC for particular criticism, insisting corporation bosses shun educational arts programming in favour of reality shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and soap opera EastEnders.
In an interview with broadcaster Johnnie Walker, he says, "Last year, I was trying to watch the BBC on Saturday night. They had Strictly Come Dancing and (host) Bruce Forsyth. And I watched almost with tears because I remembered when I was 17, 18 I used to see Hamlet and Death of a Salesman on a Saturday night. That educated me...
"The BBC is supposed to represent values.. Why should they compete (with the other networks)? ITV (network) does that stinking... Coronation Street (soap opera)... Then the BBC comes out with that stinky, slobbering, cliched, mindless, moronic EastEnders."
Berkoff goes on to brand popular period drama Downton Abbey a "lot of silly old tarts in costume", adding, "It says nothing to us."

Sir Michael Gambon and Melanie Laurent are among the stars who have stripped off to show their support for a sustainable fishing campaign. The Harry Potter star sheds his shirt and holds a blowfish to promote the Fishlove project, which aims to raise awareness of over-fishing in Europe's seas.
Laurent, who is pregnant with her first child, poses topless with only a crab to preserve her modesty, while famous faces including actors Arthur Darvill and Simon Callow, theatre director Steven Berkoff and actress Zoe Tapper also take part in the campaign.
Inglourious Basterds star Laurent says, "The fishing crisis is quite complex and difficult for people to understand, but this was so simple. It said everything that anyone needed to know about the fishing crisis: if we don't start protecting fish, they will die out."

Actor/playwright Steven Berkoff has accused Kevin Spacey of ignoring new writing talent by only staging revivals of popular plays at his Old Vic theatre in London. The Octopussy star, who has written numerous stage productions over the years, has taken aim at Spacey over his role as artistic director of the theatre company in the British capital, insisting he should do more to boost upcoming playwrights.
He tells the London Evening Standard, "All Spacey does is revivals and summer stock. It means the Old Vic is now a place just for tourists."
Upcoming shows at the Old Vic this year (13) include a revival of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth, starring Kim Cattrall, and William Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing, with James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave.

The revered British thespian was part of a recent protest outside top store Fortnum &amp; Mason, where activists were hoping to prompt bosses to end the sale of the pate produced from force-feeding ducks.
Fellow top stores Harrods and Harvey Nichols have already ceased the sale of the product following a storm of protest and Moore has long been campaigning to force Fortnum &amp; Mason bosses to do the same.
Now, it seems he has been joined by Berkoff, who played the villain opposite Moore in Octopussy.

Officials at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are spearheading calls for bosses at London's Fortnum &amp; Mason to introduce a ban on the controversial pate.
Welsh star Yeoman, who plays Special Agent Wayne Rigsby in the hit U.S. drama series, led a protest outside the store on Wednesday (15Jun11), standing front of a mocked-up "crime scene" and holding a placard that read: "F&amp;M: Investigate Compassion - Ban Foie Gras".
The actor says, "In the U.K., foie gras production is literally a criminal procedure - so why is a shop that prides itself on its British heritage still selling this cruel product? We're encouraging all compassionate people to shop elsewhere until Fortnum &amp; Mason stops selling foie gras."
Other stars who have already signed up to the campaign include James Bond legend Sir Roger Moore and British actor Steven Berkoff.

Acclaimed actor Berkoff played a Russian general opposite Moore in 1983 spy movie Octopussy, but he and the former 007 are now on the same side in the fight against bosses at Fortnum &amp; Mason.
The London shop - Queen Elizabeth II's favourite store - continues to sell controversial pate foie gras, and Berkoff and Moore are working with officials at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to convince company bosses to remove the product from their shelves.
Berkoff, who recently starred alongside Johnny Depp in The Tourist, says, "The methods by which foie gras is produced are absolutely villainous, so it's little wonder the vast majority of the British public want foie gras sales banned. It's time Fortnum &amp; Mason joined other upmarket retailers and stopped selling a product that causes birds agonising pain and death."

The Tourist is about as difficult to get through as spotting the vowels in the name of its director. Florian Henckel von Donnersmark was last seen receiving a Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2007 for The Lives of Others which was about a couple living in East Berlin who were being monitored by the police of the German Democratic Republic. Its positive reception made way for the assumption that Donnersmark would continue to populate the USA with films of seemingly otherworldly and underrepresented themes. But his current project is saddening in its superficiality and total implausibility.
The film’s only real upside is its stars: two of our most prized Americans. Johnny Depp plays Frank Tupelo a math teacher from Wisconsin who travels to Europe after his wife leaves him presumably because of his weakness and simplicity. While en route to Venice he meets Elise Clifton-Ward (Angelina Jolie) who situates herself in his company after she receives a letter from her criminal lover Alexander Pearce (who stole some billions from a very wealthy Russian and the British government) with instructions to find someone on a train who looks like him and make the police believe that he is the real Alexander Pearce to throw the authorities and the Russians off his track. Elise picks Frank and after they are photographed kissing each other on the balcony of Elise’s hotel everyone begins to believe Frank is the real Pearce and so begins the chase.
While Donnersmark could not have picked two better looking people to film roaming around Venice his lack of faith in the audience is obvious. Every aspect of the characters is hammed up again and again as if Donnersmark felt burdened with the task of making us see his vision. Doubtful that we’re capable of getting to where he wants us he has crafted a movie completely devoid of subtlety. Elise’s strength and superiority over Frank are portrayed by close-ups and repeated instances of men burping up their lungs upon seeing her (as if her beauty is in any way subjective?). And in case we forgot that Frank is the victim in this story -- even though he’s been tricked chased and shot at - Donnersmark still felt the need to pin him with a lame electronic cigarette to puff on. Frank and Elise somehow manage to lack mystery even though we get very few factual details about each of them.
Nothing extraordinary comes to us in the way of the film’s structural elements either. There is very little of the action that The Tourist’s marketing led us to believe and the dialog is often painful. The plot itself is almost shockingly unbelievable especially when we’re asked to believe that Elise falls in love with Frank after a combination of kissing him once and her disclosed habit of swooning over men she only spent an hour with (yes that was on her CV).
The Tourist is rather empty and cosmetic. It’s worth seeing if you’re a superfan of Jolie or Depp but don’t expect to walk out of the theater with anything more than the stub you came in with.

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Appeared in the WWII drama "Head in the Clouds" opposite Charlize Theron and Penélope Cruz

London stage directing debut, "Hamlet"

Wrote and directed the off-Broadway play "Kvetch"

Starred in the comedy feature "Nine Dead Gay Guys"

Stage debut in Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge"

Wrote the semi-autobiographical play "East"; premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Cast in the HBO movie "Pu-239"

Founded London Theatre Group

Portrayed Girolamo Savonarola, an influential priest in Florence who preaches against the corruption in the church on Showtime's "The Borgias"

Joined the cast of David Fincher directed "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," based on the novel by Stieg Larsson

Summary

This socially committed stage writer and director has subsidized his strikingly original London theater work with (usually) villainous film and TV roles.

Name

Role

Comments

Pauline Berks

Mother

Alfred Berks

Father

changed family surname from Berkovitch

Clara Fisher

Companion

German

Shelley Lee

Wife

married in August 1976; divorced

Education

Name

Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art

Ecole Jacques Le Coq

Notes

On never having had a bar mitzvah, Berkoff was quoted in The Independent, July 2001: "This was the source of angst for me at an early age because everyone else was having that done to them. It's a kind of ritual crossing, a rite of passage, and if it's not done to you, you haven't been, like, stamped with the authority. I think my father didn't really have any interest in making one for me. I needed someone to say: Right, you're going to the classes and you're doing this. But he didn't. I think, actually, my father was more worried about the cost of making the party afterwards. At that time, you had to rent a hall, invite the relatives, get the catering ..."